FL Mortgage License

The state of Florida has three different company licenses under which you can be licensed to do mortgage loans in the state. I'll try to cover the differences in those licenses thoroughly, yet also try to keep it brief. I'll start by saying that if you wish to be a broker in FL, you have 2 options; FL Broker Business and the FL Correspondent Lender. If you wish to be a lender, you also have 2 options; FL Correspondent Lender and FL Lender. These are just the titles of the licenses, so don't get too caught up with how you, personally, would define the terms broker, correspondent lender, and lender.

A few items that are needed for all of the license types:

1. If you are a company located out of state, then you must register your company with the Secretary of State in FL and obtain a Certificate of Authority
2. 24 hours of education and an exam must be taken and passed prior to being licensed. The exam is offered on the 4th Tuesday of every month (except for November and December, where it is offered earlier in the month due to holidays). The class is typically taken for the Fri-Sun prior to the exam.

FL Broker Business
This license is for the company who only brokers loans and who doesn't have audited company financial statements showing at least $25,000 in company net worth. The downside to this license is that each of the loan officers in your company who wants to originate loans in FL will be required to travel to FL to take the class and exam. The upside is that you do not have to have audited financial statements. There is also no surety bond required.

FL Correspondent Lender
This is by far the most popular license available in FL because you are able to be either a broker or a lender. Plus, under this license, only 1 person from your company has to pass the exam. All employees are then covered under the company license and can originate in the state. The main requirement that separates this from the Broker Business license is that you must have audited company financials showing $25,000 in company net worth. You are also required to maintain a $10,000 surety bond.

FL Lender
The only real advantage to acquiring this license as a lender versus the correspondent lender license is that you can service your loans. Other than that, it is very similar. Again, only 1 person needs to pass the exam in order for employees to be able to originate in FL. The net worth required for this license is $250,000 and must be shown in an audited company financial statement.


Honestly, most of the companies we work with are in the broker category and are trying to decide between the Broker Business and the Correspondent lender. If they have audited company financials, then the decision is a no-brainer because most companies don't want to be sending all their L/O's down to FL to take a test. But, if the company doesn't have an audited statement and has no interest in getting one, then the Broker Business offers a great way to get into FL quickly. Plus, they can always upgrade later to the Correspondent lender license once they get audited financials (don't have to take the test again).

I hope this was a helpful explanation and let me know if you have any questions about this or any other state.